Carolina Journal Weekly Report

August 17, 2012

RALEIGH — The wild swings in North Carolina’s
higher education budget may have come to a halt. Last year, the
University of North Carolina system absorbed roughly $400 million in
cuts — a few years before that, higher ed was getting annual increases
of 5 percent and more.

This year’s higher education budget essentially is unchanged from last
year, reportsCarolina Journal, with the UNC system receiving a slight 0.9 percent increase and
the community college system getting an additional 0.5 percent.

The main reason there was so little change in the higher education
budget was because the legislature rejected its longstanding policy of
raising taxes in order to increase spending. In the final tally, the
total General Fund budget was $20.2 billion, 1.2 percent higher than the
$19.94 billion that had been anticipated for 2012-13.

Additionally, when higher tax revenues than expected came in, whatever
additional money could be found was used both to fill a huge hole in the
K-12 budget due to a loss of temporary federal funding and to patch a
shortfall in Medicaid.

Both higher education systems expressed little disappointment or
surprise; all parties involved in the process knew these facts coming
in. There was some jockeying before the legislative session opened: The
UNC system requested $216 million raise in its state appropriations — a
healthy 8.5 percent. Instead, it only got $24.6 million more than last
year’s $2.54 billion, but UNC system president Thomas Ross issued a
statement suggesting that largely he was satisfied.

The community college system got an additional $5 million. “We
appreciate the General Assembly’s leadership in working closely with us
to support our System’s priorities,” read a statement by the community
college system. “They continue to recognize the value of North
Carolina’s Community Colleges.”

News Features

CJ: Three gubernatorial debates set for OctoberRALEIGH — The campaign debate season soon will
be upon us, with three scheduled meetings between the two major party
candidates for governor already lined up. Two of the debates will be held at the UNC
Center for Public Television in Research Triangle Park. The other will
be held at N.C. Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount.

CJ: Judges must justify closing trials to publicRALEIGH — The North Carolina Court of Appeals
recently confronted an issue pitting the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee
of a right to a public trial with the public interest in maintaining the
anonymity of some witnesses whose privacy would be violated if forced
to testify in open court, as in cases of rape or other alleged sexual
assaults.

CJ: Chatham Commission gets back to basicsPITTSBORO — The 2010 election saw a major
turnaround in the makeup of the Chatham County Board of Commissioners.
In a county where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-to-1, Republicans
ousted three Democratic incumbents on the five-member board with
promises to save taxpayers $2 million over four years.

Duke documents reveal more CEO machinationsRALEIGH — The N.C. Attorney General’s office on Wednesday released
documents from Duke Energy that suggest that just months after the
Progress-Duke merger was announced, Duke CEO Jim Rogers and Progress
Energy CEO Bill Johnson were in tense discussions about Johnson’s future
role with the utility. Johnson was slated to become CEO of the combined
company. Instead, he was fired the day the merger was completed.

Thorp asks Martin to look into academic fraudRALEIGH — UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp, under increasing
pressure to dig deeper into an academic fraud scandal that has now drawn
national attention, said Thursday he is bringing in a former governor
and a national management consulting firm to look for “any additional
academic irregularities that may have occurred.”

“I think it’s going to pay off.”— Mike Watson, director of the Division of Medical Assistance, as quoted by the Associated Press, assuring a legislative committee that investing in improved technology to catch Medicaid fraud and abuse will provide a positive return. Watson’s comments came in response to a report from State Auditor Beth Wood finding that the programs haven’t saved much money yet.

“Once in a while we get a blue moon.”— Ron Heiniger, a corn specialist for N.C. State University based at a research station in Plymouth in Washington County, commenting to the Raleigh News & Observer on the rare combination North Carolina corn farmers are facing this year of having a large crop and getting high prices for it.

On The Air This Week…

This week on C J Radio…JLF’s Terry Stoops analyzes the mixed bag of results in new ABC school test scores; Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig discusses reforming the way members of Congress are elected; Christopher Wolfe of the Thomas International Center discusses federalism; former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty rally conservatives; and JLF’s Becki Gray analyzes legislative overrides of Gov. Perdue’s vetoes.